Attachment and expectations || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Questionnaire: Sir, Why expectation comes with attachment. And how attachment can be controlled?

Acharya Prashant: Sit. What’s your name?

Questionnaire: Jyoti Narayan.

AP: Jyoti. Question is “What is the relationship between expectation and attachment? And how can attachment be controlled?

Listener 1: Yes sir. Both.

AP: Both, of course, if there is a relation, one is the function of the other.

What is attachment? Out of expectations and attachment, attachment is the more basic thing, we need to understand attachment.

The brain is as such nothing. It is just a mass of cells, tissues. It has no sense of identity. Just as the hand, the flesh in the hand can have no sense of identity, similarly in its most initial way the brain too has no sense of identity. However, the brain is configured to search for an identity. The brain is the instrument that produces thought. The brain is configured to search for an identity. The brain must answer the question “Who am I?” Hand need not answer the question “Who am I?” but the brain must answer the question “Who am I?” It needs to have an identity. Now how does it get that identity?